Write to Elder Reiley

Monday, May 16, 2016

05/16/2016

Dear Family,

Here is the update for this week. Robert is still good to go for his baptism on Saturday. We are really excited for him. The tithing lesson actually went really well. He said that paying $20 to the church would be the best $20 he can spend. His interview is tonight so say some prayers for him.

We found a couple of really promising people this week. One less-active lady reached out to the Bishop and said she wants to come back to church. Her boyfriend and three kids are all nonmembers. We have taught them once and then they came to a Book of Mormon class that we have. We will start to teach them and get them into the ward. We also taught another part-member family. They have met with missionaries before, but it has been awhile. Hopefully they will start to progress.

We are meeting with a recent convert that just moved into the ward. He is so cool. He has a rough background. He has been in huge gangs and was just a kind of bad guy. He found the gospel and it has completely changed him. He just got the Aaronic priesthood and will start a home teaching route soon. He has told us some cool stories. It goes to show that the gospel can change anybody. It reminds me of the story of Alma the Younger. Can you imagine the people listening to Alma right after he regained his strength? What a change! It would be crazy to see. I'm sure that the people running around with this guy a few years ago would be blown away with the change he has gone through.

Devon got baptized on Saturday. Elder Stevens and I got a ride back to Astoria to be there. It was way good! I was hoping somebody from his family would be there, but nobody was there from his family. His mom is still kind of against it. Devon is planning on a mission in a year so we will see how she feels about that. I talked to Sariah (his girlfriend) about seeing you guys at church a few months ago so that was cool. I also saw the Simmons family again. They met you there as well. I also met their daughter who is Emmi Harmon's (in our ward) roommate. She just got her mission call to Chile and she leaves in a few weeks.

Anyway, on the way back, our member's windshield wiper just came off in the pouring rain. I knew something would go wrong, haha, so it was a long, scary ride home, but we made it back! I know the Lord was watching out for us. Also that picture you got from that family... he sent you a picture about 22 months ago on my first week of my mission! One more cool note is that Astoria is having their first two Spanish baptisms on May 28th. One if them is a guy that Elder Stevens and I found.

Yesterday we got a call from a member in a different mission. He has been fellowshiping a lady for a few months and she is not a member. She was really sick so we gave her a blessing and then we taught her about the restoration. She is actually in a different war, but it was a cool experience.

Thanks for all the updates from home. Bummer about baseball. Hopefully things go better next year. Nice job on the talk Austin. Fulfilling the responsibilities as a priest may not seem like a big thing, but it goes a long way. I wasn't able to open that talk. Thanks again for getting all my USU stuff set up and ready to go.

Thank you so much for the email. Thanks for all you do for me. I love you all.

Love: Jaxon

Jaxon and elder ?? (I'll look it up)Jaxon at a member house for dinnerMost of the zone in happy valleyDevon's baptism in Astoria